Pages

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

10 Great Toys for Sight Challenged Kids

Kids love toys of every shape and size, there’s no doubt about it. But not all children are alike and not all kids like the same things. When buying a gift for any child, it’s important to consider if the child will enjoy the gift. The same holds true when buying a gift for a blind or visually impaired child. Fortunately, there is an amazing array of toys that have been specially designed or modified for sight challenged kids so that they are able to enjoy many of the same toys as those who were blessed with good vision. There are also many popular toys that both blind and sighted children enjoy.

Check out these 10 great toys for sight challenged kids.

Let’s Rock Elmo: Let’s Rock Elmo is an interactive toy that sings and plays music. The toy comes with various instruments that Elmo and the children can play together. Let’s Rock Elmo does not have to be purchased through a specialty store and can be purchased at most large retailers. Make sure to install the batteries before you give the toy to the child so that they can start playing with it immediately.

Braille Learning Doll: The Braille Learning Doll is a specialty doll that is available through several different vendors, including Enable Mart. There are 6 buttons on the stomach of the doll which allows the child to make all braille letters. This is an educational gift that will help the child learn Braille.

Board games: A company called Maxi Aids offers a large line of standard board games that have been modified to work for sight challenged kids. Some of the games include Checkers games that have high contrast color pieces, Scrabble games that have large print tiles and boards, and Monopoly that comes in a large print edition. Since both sight and blind people can play these games, it can help foster inclusion.

Bop It/Bop It XT: Bop It is a fantastic game that a child can play alone or with friends. The Bop It gives verbal commands that tell you to bop it, twist it, pull it and shake it. Once the child knows where the different parts of the game are they should be able to play by listening to the verbal cues. There are many different games within the Bop It toy and there are different levels of play as well. This is a great game for the whole family.

Dolls: If you buy a doll, make sure that it plays to more than one sense. There are dolls that talk and play music that a blind child may enjoy. Dolls with texture can be great for visually impaired children too. Look for clothes that have patches or embroidery on them so that the child can tell the difference between her dolls and doll accessories.

Stuffed animals: Everyone loves a nice soft stuffed animal to hug, but to make this toy even better for a sight challenged child you may want it to engage more senses. Choosing different types of stuffed toys, like ones stuffed with beans, crinkly paper and batting can help engage additional senses. The texture of the animal is important too. Maybe it’s a lion and it has a long haired fuzzy mane, soft fur on the back, and a long tail. All of those things will make the toy more fun for a sight challenged child.

Braille games:Maxi-Aids also makes card games like Uno, Phase 10 and Dominos that all come equipped with Braille cards. While the child can often feel how many dots are on a domino they can’t tell what color it is without some help from the Braille dots.

Audio Dart Master: This dart game has a texturized board that the sight challenged person can feel prior to play. The rest of the game is played by audio commands. The board calls out the player’s name and score, and will even give off a signal to help a sight challenged player aim for the bulls-eye. It’s available at audiodartmaster.com.

Wikkistix: This is a very useful gift because it’s a toy, a craft, and is useful for marking things for sight challenged kids. Wikkistix are sticky string-like sticks that come in various colors and can be bent and wound around anything. Kids can make creatures to play with or create greeting cards. The Wikkistix can even be used to teach shapes and to label things like a keyboard.

Rib-it-Ball: Someone was really thinking when they created the Rib-it-Ball. The ball has sections of bright colors so it’s easier to see for sight challenged kids. The ribs stick out so that it’s easy to catch and the ribs crinkle like paper so it’s easy to hear when it’s being thrown to you. This ball will help with muscle control and hand/eye coordination.

One of the most important things you can do when picking a gift is to find out what the child enjoys. Keep these toys in mind the next time you are on the hunt for the best gift for a sight challenged child in your life.

19 comments:

I recently made an app for android that takes a picture of a page (words) and then speaks it aloud. I wanted to do it open source (free), inspired by a Ted Talk video that stated this technology used to cost a lot.Now any android phone can do it, here it is I'm trying to get it out there to those who can use it:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.davecote.seesay

On the left of the app page you will also see a version that takes a picture of ANY language (but this one is more geared to travelling:)

A young kid would not be happy, if handed a toddler’s toys and vice-versa. Similarly, toys that are more appropriate for boys may not be liked by girls and the same thing goes for boys as well. Choose toys that make sense to your child’s age and gender, lest they end up serving no purpose.

Above link has been changed, See Say Image to Speech for the Visually Impaired is now here on Google Play:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seesay.seesay

Take Picture of Book Page, Android Reads it Aloud! See Say Image to Speech OCR.An app for android that takes a picture, and speaks the text aloud:) A tool for the visually impaired, or just for the curious.I was inspired by a Ted Talk that mentioned that not too long ago, this technology was available for around $10,000.00, for the visually impaired. Technology has come so far that I am able to write this app and release it for under five bucks :)-----------------------------------------------https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seesay.seesay

Further along the lines of Visual Impairment, I spent the better part of 6 months developing Object Recognition, in other words, picture of ANY object to speech. This tool works best on "things", not people, and it gets smarter each update. It's named ANDROID EYE, and it won Reviewers Choice Award, with much great positive feedback:

I have reading online digital images for years and I nearly destroyed my old windows XP resizing the windows every which way so I could read and type at the same time . Then I discovered the SPLIT windows command on my new Windows 7 ( hold down the WINDOWS button and press the right or left arrow to the side you want the window to split ) but it was not large enough to see everything . Have a laptop so I cannot buy a larger monitor. Hoping this program is the answer!!Transcription service

It's not so hard to find toys for children who are visually impaired. The first thing to do when selecting a gift for a visually impaired child is to research the child's interests. Every child has his or her own likes and dislikes; all blind children don't like the same things. Your totally blind nephew may love toy cars, but your grandson with low vision may not. dragonfly games for kids

You are missing an educational toy specially designed for kids with special needs which stimulate creativity through the sense of touch. Creating art that can be felt through their fingertips.http://www.klongdinsor.com/lensen/Check it out. It is incredible!

Great post, and great looking toys too. Toys are indeed so important in a child’s development, so one must consider all aspects when choosing the right toys. thanks for this! Nowadays trampoline is considered as a best toy for kids. best trampoline reviews

I love these ideas, I think they work perfectly well with young learners. I am actually thinking of using some of them while teaching my own kids. I will let you know how it works with them. Thanks for sharing. ''

The guide is refreshed each couple of years and incorporates an extensive rundown of standard toys that are suitable for blind children. It incorporates thoughts for everything from braille and music toys to baby and development toys, yet the best thing is that they truly center around items that are fitting . If you want to know more, Please check out here: toys for deaf babies

Fredrick Courtney Selous was one of the legendary hunters and explorers who made their name in Africa during the reign of Queen Victoria. Selous was born in London in 1851 and inspired by the written works of explorers including Dr David Livingstone, he travelled to Africa when he was 19 and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. popular teddy bears

Westminster Visual Impairment Service

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

You have come to this page for reasons either professional or personal. Whatever your reasons please feel free to enjoy this resource. Visual impairment is a low incidence disability and about half of the people who are visually impaired have brain damage which causes them serious difficulties with operating in the world of the visually competent.

I would love to be a catalyst to link up people of all walks of life who have one thing in common - they have been thrown into the world of visual impairment.

INSPIRING STORIES

One of the great inspirations to me must be Helen Keller. Helen Keller was not born blind and deaf; it was not until she was 19 months old that she contracted an illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain", which might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness left her deaf and blind. At that time, she was able to communicate somewhat with Martha Washington, the six-year-old daughter of the family cook, who understood her signs; by the age of seven, she had over 60 home signs to communicate with her family.

In 1886, her mother, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens' American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind woman, Laura Bridgman, dispatched young Helen, accompanied by her father, to seek out Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice.[11] He subsequently put them in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised the couple to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. Michael Anaganos, the school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and only 20 years old, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship, Sullivan evolving into governess and then eventual companion.

Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887, and immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller was frustrated, at first, because she did not understand that every object had a word uniquely identifying it. In fact, when Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for "mug", Keller became so frustrated she broke the doll.

Keller's big breakthrough in communication came the next month, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water"; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.

Due to a protruding left eye, Keller was usually photographed in profile. Both her eyes were replaced in adulthood with glass replicas for "medical and cosmetic reasons". Wikipedia

Total Pageviews

Ophthalmology and opthalmologists

Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems. The ophthalmologist is the eye doctor. Since ophthalmologists perform operations on eyes, they are considered to be both surgical and medical specialists.

The word ophthalmology comes from the Greek roots ophthalmos meaning eye and logos meaning word, thought, or discourse; ophthalmology literally means "the science of eyes". As a discipline, it applies to animal eyes also, since the differences from human practice are surprisingly minor and are related mainly to differences in anatomy or prevalence, not differences in disease processes. However, veterinary medicine is regulated separately in many countries and states/provinces resulting in few ophthalmologists treating both humans and animals.

History of Ophthalmology

Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

The seventeenth and eighteenth century saw the use of hand lenses (by Malpighi), microscopes (van Leeuwenhoek), preparations for fixing the eye for study (Ruysch) and later the freezing of the eye (Petit). This allowed for detailed study of the eye and an advanced model. Some mistakes persisted such as: why the pupil changed size (seen to be vessels of the iris filling with blood), the existence of the posterior chamber, and of course the nature of the retina. In 1722 Leeuwenhoek noted the existence of rods and cones, though they were not properly discovered until Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus in 1834 by use of a microscope.

Ophthalmic surgery in Great Britain

The first ophthalmic surgeon in Great Britain was John Freke, appointed to the position by the Governors of St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1727, but the establishment of the first dedicated ophthalmic hospital in 1805; now called Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, England was a transforming event in modern ophthalmology. Clinical developments at Moorfields and the founding of the Institute of Ophthalmology (now part of the University College London) by Sir Stewart Duke Elder established the site as the largest eye hospital in the world and a nexus for ophthalmic research.

Ophthalmology and ophthalmologists

Purkinje is a known to all ophthalmologists for Purkinje's cells, Purkinje's images. Jan Evangelista Purkinje was a versatile scholar with wide-ranging interests and an exceptional capacity for innovative thinking. He used the name “Purkinje” until 1850, from whence he used the correct spelling, Pyrkyně. We use Purkinje for the eponyms because that is the more common. Purkinje was a Czech nationalist and had a major influence on Czech cultural life in the middle of the 19th century. He was a friend of the famous German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who wrote about Purkinje: “and should you fail to understand, let Purkyně give you a hand!” Purkinje published a Czech translation of Friedrich Schiller's poems, and translated works of William Shakespeare into Czech.

Purkinje created the world’s first department of physiology at the University of Breslau, Prussia in 1839 and the first official physiological laboratory, known as the Physiological Institute, in 1842. Purkinje used to believe that that experiments in one's own body ("in corpore nobili") gave more practical results than those in animal experiment ("in corpore vili") or in fatally ill patients. And when he was a medical student, Purkinje used to investigate the physiology of sight by experimenting on himself with a variety of drugs, including Belladonna. His interest in the physiology of light led him to make animated cartoons, and thus he became one of the earliest motion picture pioneers.

He is best known for his discovery of Purkinje cells, large nerve cells with many branching extensions found in the cortex of the cerebral cortex. He is also known for his discovery of Purkinje fibers, the fibrous tissue that conducts the pacemaker stimulus along the inside walls of the ventricles to all parts of the heart. It was Purkinje, who introduced the scientific terms plasma. An early user of the improved compound microscope, he discovered the sweat glands of the skin, germinal vesicles. He recognized fingerprints as a means of identification and noted the protein-digesting power of pancreatic extracts. He died on July 25 of 1868.